RESULTS OF RECENT EARTHQUAKE SHOCKS

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume LXI, Issue 10920, 21 September 1932, Page 3

RESULTS OF RECENT EARTHQUAKE SHOCKS

Investigations by Mr Furkert FURTHER DAMAGE REPORTED, Wairoa, Sept. 20 A fairly quiet night was experienced in Wairoa, there being two earthquake shocks. Only one jolt of a heavy nature was felt to-day. The engineer-in-chief of the Public Works Department, Mr F. W. Furkert, has arrived and was busily engaged throughout the day investigating the position. Mr Turner, borough surveyor, has also arrived to make a report.

The Borough Council decided last evening to replace chimneys and tanks immediately in. necessitous cases. The Mayor, Mr H. L. Harker, received a telegram to-day from the acting-Minister of Public Works, Hon. C. E. Macmillan, stating that the request for a pontoon bridge is receiving immediate consideration. This advice is perhaps the most welcome message since the upheaval took place. The Government has authorised the deputy-chairman of the Unemployment Board, Mr J. S. Jessep, to do what the situation demanded, and he has helped the council considerably. Meat rations for unemployed men have been ordered from Gisborne, where some 300 carcases of meat were held for delivery when required. At a conference between Mr D. W. Coleman, M.P. for the district, and representatives of local bodies concerning problems facing the toAvn, Mr Brewster said that the Wairoa Hospital Board was facing a critical financial position. After the earthquake last year, when extensive loss was caused by damage to buildings and breakages, the board had corresponded with the Government, and, believing that it would receive assistance in meeting its outlay the board had repaired the damage, but when accounts were submitted to the Government the only comfort given to the board was the recommendation that it should pay £450 out of revenue and take a loan for the balance of the £BSO expended. That was a hard course to take seeing that there was still money available in the Prime Minister’s fund for earthquake relief. Mr Brewster said that if the Government would reimburse the board for the cost of reparations after the 1931 earthquake, it would relieve the board of a serious burden.

An area not previously mentioned which has suffered to a great extent is the local cemetery. It is estimated that over a hundred headstones crashed. Ornaments and railings lie everywhere, and the area gives the impression of having undergone an artillery bombardment. The Opouiti River is still completely blocked by slips running from Mangapoiki through the hills. At Clydebank the sheepyard gates were wrenched off the, hinges and fences were flattened wholesale, giving the impression that a terrifia tornado had passed through this previously peaceful valley. St. Paul’s Anglican Sunday School building is tilted over and broken away from another section of the church building, which is badly strained. St. Peter’s Catholic Church is also strained and the convent building is also damaged. The Harbour Board sheds are badly damaged,’ also the whayves, including the ferro-concrete wharf for the handling of wool.